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Post-Apocalypse
This page will include a setting, and a system. The system should be usable without the setting, for other post-apocalypse scenarios. Setting introduction Various bits and pieces coming together as a setting 'Inspiration' Remember the Last of Us? It's a PS3 exclusive title (yes a video game), that details a post-apocalyptic adventure, following a hardened survivor and a child. A very decent game, recommendable to everyone, despite being a bit of a "the Walking dead" game ripoff. More importantly, however, it has introduced the most interesting zombies I've ever encountered! A family of fungus known as Cordyceps (that exists in real life, albeit only capable of affecting insects) has now evovled so it can affect humans. It's a fungus that grows in the brain, eventually growing through the skull, and taps into the nervous system of the host, taking over motor-functions and alters the hosts behaviour. In the end, the host dies, after having lost control of it's own body, at which point it starts spreading spores. When infected, the fungus takes control of the hosts' brain, rendering it aggressive due to the pain, but also because the fungus changes the behavioural patterns of the host to make it spread the spores more effectively. Lastly, because the host needs to eat, and will attack anything living on sight. In the last of us, zombies lose eyesight, but in this version, they do not, and while hosts do turn into bloaters eventually, they don't "hurl balls of spores" either. Now imagine that this fungus has spread over most of the world, infecting or killing over half the world population. Small government controlled quanrantine zones exist, but rations are always low, and martial law continues to be in effect, and one by one, they are falling pray to anarchi. Groups of survivors have long since fled the civilized areas, where the most infected are holed up. 'History' Just as the world was coming back on track, a mysterious fungal infection only affecting humans known as the "human cordyceps" started subtly spreading through the cities. Several isolated incidents, generally kept under lock and key, as governments started discussing this in secret. In secrecy, many countries started preparing for a pandemic, and feature films about pandemics and evacuations were being played everywhere, to make the general population aware of the dangers, news started leaking that there was some sort of infection spreading, especially as entire apartment blocks were quarantined and what appeared to be crazed people were shot down in the street, soon entire cities were lost, and the military had to move in, countries started to draft people in large numbers and sent people to work. Fallout shelters were re-stocked, many people tried to prepare themselves. In just a few years, the pandemic spread from a casual rumour to a very real threat. For some people, the changes happened over night. Soon, the military started fire-bombing cities to kill off the infection, but this provided little more than craters and ashes. over half of the worlds population has died by now, and more will. 'The Infection' The fungus spreads itself via spores, and some infected are capable of spreading it via contract through the bloodstream. The spores are fully capable of growing on a dead body, and the infected attack and attempt to eat practically anything they come across that used to be alive, and if possible, they gladly kill it, themselves. When infected, the longest recorded time it has ever taken someone to lose control to the fungus which attempts to take control over the subjects brain and nervous system, is 77 hours and 33 minutes, normally it takes less than 24 hours however. First state of infection is similar to having the flu, with increased aggression and headaches. 'Runners' Runners are the first stage of the Infected who have recently entered their transformation. Since the eyes are first targeted by the fungus, runners have poor eyesight, but maintain many human instincts. For example, their moans are still human, just like their overall appearance. However, a way to tell them apart from normal survivors is their lambent red eyes. Their body language is sluggish while they are passive and makes it seem as if they are trying to resist the fungus. Sometimes they do not attack at all, even when right in front of them. These non-aggressive runners will only attack if attacked first or when something startles them. Often found indoors, because the sun dehydrates them, they tend to seek refuge from humans, as they still have a little control over their actions, but these are basically just the last dying echoes of their human instincts. They tend to find other runners and be with, but will roam for food, and will follow stalkers. 'Stalkers' Stalkers are the second stage of the Infected. Somewhat similar to clickers in appearance, but more "intelligent", not as dangerous however. The most notable trait that defines the "Stalkers" is the beginning of fungal growths on the head and face, the development of pseudo echolocation, and their discretion when chasing a victim - they will strafe and take cover, eventually closing in on the victim, hence the name "stalker". Stage 2 may take place anywhere between a few days after the start of the infection (Stage 1) and up to a year (Stage 3). Stalkers seek out humans, and are capable of leading other infected to human settlements. 'Clickers' Clickers are the third stage of the Infected that have had prolonged exposure to the fungus. Called clickers, due to the intense clicking noise they constantly produce to communicate with eachother, primitively. Clickers appear less human than Runners, with faces that are skewed and scarred by fungus developed from their infected brains, out of their head except their mouth. Clickers are dangerous and much more aggressive than Runners, but no longer resist the fungus anymore because their humanity has been devastated. Clickers are "dormant" and only wander around in search of food, but they will follow a stalker if prompted to, because they know Stalkers lead them to food. The bite of a clicker will infect the blood-stream of a victim. It takes roughly a year for a runner to turn into a clicker. Only a few clickers survive long enough to become bloaters, as clickers lose their intellect and tend to get themselves stuck in remote locations, following something edible they didn't manage to catch, getting lost without access to food. 'Bloaters' Bloaters are the fourth and final stage of the Infected. They are guarded in thick fungus that effectively doubles padding. Due to this protective covering, they can withstand multiple hits from weapons, making them extremely hard to eliminate. Bloaters are extremely aggressive and unpredictable, but are rather slow-moving. Like Clickers, Bloaters communicate making clicking noises. Bloaters spread spores wherever the go, they are basically covered in fungus. Bloaters are very rare, fortunately, and are considered exceptionally dangerous. Even after dying, they can pollute large areas with their spores. 'Factions' There are various factions, all struggling to survive. 'Government controlled zones' A few uninfacted farms exist under government control, far away from the heavily infected suburban areas, and cities, producing food and sending it to factories that conserve the food. Other factories produce ammunition and parts from scrap metal, but these are recent developments, and very few in numbers. The factories are "independant" and "trade" with cities for what they need (trading food for ammunitions and necessities ect.) The government controlled zones are controlled by "Officers", former commanding officers who have taken on the leadership roles, maintaining quarantine zones. It's considered illegal to live outside the quarantine zones, and in most cases, soldiers will kill anything they see that resembles a human, moving outside the zones, unless they have a feeling that they've sumbled on a settlement or a group, in which case they will offer to escort them back, take their names and statements and give them fair warning to return to safety, that is if they can't subdue the people they've found, and take them back, or call in reenforcements. During rough times, they've been known to shoot on sight and steal what ever they find. 'Survivors' Survivors who often band together in small groups, wholed up in secure locations with weapons and food storages, moving only when it get's too dangerous. 'Scavengers' Smaller groups of nomadic survivors. 'Hunters' Hunters are humans who hunt other survivors to steal their spoils. 'Cannibals' Cannibals are human groups of survivors that hunt other humans for human meat. While not their preferred dish, they have taken to this, and most never turn back. System Using primarily world of Darkness rules (including our usual houserules), the system has been drastically simplified, to represent the decrease in actual education. 'Scavenging' Scavenging, looting a pillaging all functions based off of some rolls, which are all modified by the location. Scavenging rolls are done the following way; loot oppertunities are divided into categories. The character makes a looting roll, which is investigation+intelligence. A success indicates that a single random roll "item" is found. A failure indicates that nothing interesting turns up. A dramatic failure will often lead to a nasty surprise. More than one success indicates that the the normal amount of random roll items for such a location is found. A dramatic success indicates that instead of finding 5 random items, 1 very good item is found, which isn't random rolled. 'Category A' Locations that shouldn't have anything noteworthy to offer, offers two dice worth of random items. 1-2 grants random parts (one universal unit), 3-4 grants food (one meals worth), 5-6 grants "necessities" (clothes, toilet paper, soap, toothpaste ect., firefood, blankets, medicine), 7-8 grants ammunition (no more that 1 dice worth in amount however), 9 grants a usable object (random pick one from equipment lists, can be an improvised weapon). Finally, 10 allows for a reroll, adding an additional dice, finding an extra item. 'Category B ' These locations still have some things lying around, just not the things usually sought after. Grants four dice worth of random items. 1-2 grants random parts (one universal unit), 3-4 grants food (one meals worth), 5-6 grants "necessities" (clothes, toilet paper, soap, toothpaste ect.), 7-8 grants ammunition (no more that 1 dice worth in amount however), 9 grants a usable object (random pick one from equipment lists, can be an improvised weapon). Finally, 10 allows for a reroll, adding an additional dice, finding an extra item. 'Category C' These locations are likely to hold treasures, granting 6 dice worth of random items. 1-2 grants random parts (one universal unit), 3-4 grants food (one meals worth), 5-6 grants "necessities" (clothes, toilet paper, soap, toothpaste ect.), 7-8 grants ammunition (no more that 1 dice worth in amount however), 9 grants a usable object (random pick one from equipment lists, can be an actual weapon). Finally, 10 allows for a reroll, adding an additional dice, finding an extra item. 'Category D' These locations are almost promised to hold great riches, granting 8 random loot dice. 1-2 grants random parts (one universal unit), 3-4 grants food (one meals worth), 5-6 grants "necessities" (clothes, toilet paper, soap, toothpaste ect.), 7-8 grants ammunition (no more that 1 dice worth in amount however), 9 grants a usable object (random pick one from equipment lists, can actual weapon). Finally, 10 allows for a reroll, adding an additional dice, finding an extra item. Dense Urban locations Dense Urban areas were all attempted quarantined, many homes were barred off with bars being screwed directly into the frame works of the buildings, covering the windows, and doors being blocked off by contraption known as a double door jack, which is screwed directly into the door, and the doorframe as well, preventing anyone who doesn't have the right tools from opening the doors. Gaining access to a quarantined home requires an extended larceny+dexterity roll, using the right tools, requiring 15 successes, and 15 minutes of work per roll. Without the right rools, the action can be attempted at strength 6. Using magic of sorts, the same amount of time is needed roughly (unless the mage in question is very powerful). Note that a random roll will decide the amount of infected inside (if any) and their condition, but given the right tools and enough patience, theoretically, any home can be looted. In a dense urban area, about 40% of all homes are likely to be barred up, but many buildings aren't homes, however, urban areas are likely to have already been loted, first by government sanctioned looting teams and later by freelancer looters, so the likelyhood of fiding a house that hasn't already been picked clean is very low. Fortunately, government sanctioned looting teams and most freelance looters utilize special spray-paint codes to mark their previous targets, making it relatively easy to spot a place that has been picked. Rolling wits+investigation extended and getting 10 successes (each roll representing an hours worth of searching) will reveal a location that has only been picked clean by government sanctioned teams (these teams take only specific items of interest, like medical supplies, food, clothes, blankets and ammunition ect., wooden furniture for firefood in some colder cities). 5 successes reveals a place that has been picked by both, but the player notices a somewhat hidden feature they were unlikely to have spotted when they went through, perhaps yielding some interesting goods. 15 successes reveal a location completely untouched. Remember, that ANY building is subject to a random roll to see if there are infected present, but note that only qurantined buildings have high chances of infected being present. Outside of the government controlled zones, usually found in the central areas of the larger cities, often close to the harbour if possible, small communities of scavengers live and dwell in buildings. These don't always take kindly to outsiders sticking their heads in, and their presence is likely in previously double-picked locations. Only completely untouched locations are most often free of other presences. Possibly Category A or B loot, sometimes even C loot. 'Infected areas' Some areas of bigger cities are completely packed with infected, these are usually barricated off, of course there's bound to be good loot in such places (rolls for finding loot locations are reduced: Twice picked requires only a single success, once picked requires 3 successes, not picked at all requires 5 successes), and searches are done in half time. There's a limited amount of infected areas per city however, and for every search roll, the character runs serious risks of attracting unwanted attention. All buildings are likely to hold infected presences. Most of these areas are barricaded in, and there's usually still a few stragglers who live in there, who can't leave due to the barricades, and because of the hordes of infected roaming the areas. Category C loot. 'Ruins' Many areas used to be infected areas, until they were nuked from orbit. Turns out infected are very resillient to bombing, and the ruins are still dangerous places to go, with alright chances of finding loot. Search time is halved, but normal success requirements. Category B loot. 'Government controlled Sectors' Most buildings are completely empty by now, leaving behind only empty furniture, and buildings that have been cleared are usually barred off, to prevent people from squatting, and looting is damn near impossible in government controlled sectors, as it's actually not considered looting, but theft and burglery. Guarded depots hold most of the interesting goods anyway, as citizens in government controlled sectors are prohibited from owning weapons and ammunitions ect. and food is rationed out. These places are somewhat normal, but military forces rule them with an iron grip. Schools for children and forced labour for adults, and the soldiers are the only ones who never suffer when it comes to food and medicine needs, plus they have guns, so they can do what they want. Rape and violence is commonplace in these zones. 'Suburban areas' Many roads were barred of, areas bombed and many neighbourhoods are still packed with infected roaming free in the cities, so making it to the suburbs and back again, is quite a challenge. Suburbs are dangerous because there is no where to hide, and only a small concentration of people to count on. Most homes in the suburbs were left in a hurry, or otherwise people tried to barricade themselves in there, eventually dying. Suburbas are gold-mines for looters but only a select few hardcore looter-teams have the skills to make it there and back, and the suburbs usually claim a few lives on every run. The military have armoured trucks and heavy weapons, and their looter teams occassionally make runs to the suburbs. Looting rolls take half time, and have reduced success requirements as with infected areas. Chance of running into infected are just as big, and the challenge of getting there is bigger, but the amount of loot left lying around is also quite a bit bigger. Category D loot. 'Villages and country areas' If one has the means to make it all the way out into the countryside, one risks running into small communities that haven't even been exposed to the infection yet... Category D loot.